My apologies if my last post got your hopes up too much. I was hopeful, but puzzled that if it were him, and flying so well, why we hadn’t seen him flying with his parents.
His body was found today by one of our medical staff (who also watch the livestream). Cause of death is unknown. I thought at first broken neck because of the angle, but it seemed intact. I have asked the vet for an autopsy, but she said that the body is too far gone. That’s a pity as I would like to have known whether it was caused by trichomoniasis (canker) as has been suggested by some watchers. We’ve never had a case here, but the parasite could be present in the local pigeon population and transferred in the prey. It’s quite common in urban peregrine chicks where they fed pigeons as a staple.
So it looks like he died a few days after last seen on 23rd November. I don’t think he made it back to the box. He was found fairly close to where he was last seen, several hundred metres from the tower.
Rubus at 41 days
